Food waste in Italian households during the Covid-19 pandemic: a self-reporting approach

Abstract

Food waste prevention and reduction are an economic, social and environmental concern included among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The third target under SDG 12 (Target 12.3) on Responsible Production and Consumption aims to halve food waste by 2030 at retail and consumer levels, considering that more than half of its quantity is generated by final consumers, both indoor and outdoor. However, the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak at the beginning of 2020 imposed several food consumption behaviors and lifestyle changes: food service facilities (e.g., restaurants, pubs, cafés, hotels, resorts) have been closed roughly all over the world, generating a sharp domestic consumption and an expected increase in household waste. The authors conducted an explorative research through the food diary approach. The purpose of this paper is to have a better understanding of household food consumption and wastage trends during Covid-19 pandemic testing, as well as food diary methodology strengths and weaknesses. Food diaries, even with their intrinsic limitations and biases, represent a valuable technique to obtain detailed qualitative and quantitative knowledge on daily food consumption and consumers' behavior. Through the limited but significant results achieved, the authors highlight the logistics of the methodology and the food waste generation trends among a small sample of Italian families during the Covid-19 pandemic. Further, healthier work-life balances, adequate time management and smart food delivery seem to be good opportunities for food waste reduction in households.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Food diaries; Food waste; Food waste behavior; Sustainability.

Fig. 1

Sankey diagram for food consumption and food waste (kg) during Covid-19. (Source: Personal elaboration by the authors)

Fig. 2

a Food consumption and food waste associated financial costs (euro); b Food consumption and food waste associated nutritional intake and losses (MJ); c Share in food waste associated financial costs by food categories (%); d Share in food waste associated nutritional losses by food categories (%). (Source: Personal elaboration by the authors)